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T O P I C R E V I E W

michaelSN99

the expedition 13 crew of the international space station pavel vinogradov and jeffrey williams, together with the first brazilian astonaut marcos pontes is scheduled to launch March 29 , 02.30 gmt from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan.today the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle and the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft left the assembly and testing facility and arrived to the launch pad . complete launch system was erected on the launch pad and first launch day activities began.

[This message has been edited by collectSPACE Admin (edited March 28, 2006).]

Ben

This will, should it achieve orbit, be the 100th manned Russian spaceflight to do so since Gagarin circled the Earth one time, 45 years ago this coming April 12.

Marcos Pontes will be the 440th person to orbit the Earth since Gagarin; and the 443rd to travel beyond 100km in altitude.

Ben

Expedition 13 successfully in orbit!

Robert Pearlman

NASA status report

quote:The 13th crew of the International Space Station roared away today from Kazakhstan into orbit atop a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, NASA Science Officer and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Brazilian Space Agency astronaut Marcos Pontes will dock to the station late Friday. Vinogradov and Williams will spend six months on the complex during Expedition 13. Pontes, flying under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will stay on the station for eight days.

The 162-foot tall Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:30 p.m. EST. About 10 minutes later, the Soyuz was in orbit with its solar arrays and antennae extended. Docking is planned for 11:19 p.m. EST Friday.

The two crews will spend about a week handing over operations of the station, and Pontes will conduct a series of research investigations. McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes return to Earth April 8. At landing, McArthur and Tokarev will have spent almost 190 days in space.

michaelSN99

the soyuz tma-8 with the new iss-resident-crew, pavel vinogradov and jeffrey williams and first brazilian astronaut marcos pontos reached today successfully the international space station.

the docking was confirmed exactly at 04:19:34 gmt.approximately two hours later the hatches between the two spacecraft swang open and the soyuz crew entered the orbital outpost.

While I am delighted that Expedition 13 is safely onboard - and good fortune to them both - spare a thought for the original flight engineer, Daniel Tani.Still unsure why he was replaced by Jeff Williams. It's also good to see Brazil's first astronaut finally in orbit.

MSS

quote:Originally posted by issman1:{...} - spare a thought for the original flight engineer, Daniel Tani.Still unsure why he was replaced by Jeff Williams. {...}